Dario Franchitti, on regretting his choice of dining companion in Japan

“My brother Marino and I were talking one day and he said, ‘With Justin, I swear he’s got hollow legs!’ It was like the drink almost had no effect on him, while we’re all falling down. There was the infamous Japan story where normally after the Motegi race, all the drivers go down to Tokyo and have a big night. And Justin and I decided we would keep it very mature, that we weren’t partaking in that. And this year we were just going to stay at the hotel at the track, have a quiet dinner, and get up next morning and drive to get down to the airport, whatever. Well, one thing led to another, we’re having a lovely dinner, and then Justin comes back from the bar with tequila shots.

“And this evening went from zero to a hundred percent madness in literally that one gesture. And then God, the next thing I remember, I was laying outside on the road, outside the hotel, looking up at the stars with the big man just chuckling away at me in such a sorry state. And then the next morning, the drive to the airport was hateful. It was such a horrible hangover. And I completely blame the big guy for that. It was totally his idea. And I for once was trying to be a responsible citizen and I was led astray!”

Graham Rahal, on Justin’s sense of honor and fair play

“If I can say anything about Justin Wilson, it goes all the way down to the week before he passed. He and I are battling wheel to wheel for the win at Mid-Ohio in 2015. If he wanted to ruin that race for me and steal the win, he could have easily done it. He could have easily done it. Did I brake extremely late on that restart to not give him the opportunity to pass? Of course. But if that’s anybody else, anybody else, guarantee you they go around the outside on overtake [push-to-pass] when I have none, they immediately chop across my bow, block me to the best that they can to take the momentum, and they put you in a bad spot. Or just nudge you from behind, knock you around and open up the inside line.

“Now here’s a guy who’s a part-time driver at that point, who’s been given a great opportunity by Honda to get his name back in the sport, get to the forefront. Here he is, an opportunity for this guy to go win a race for Michael Andretti. How big would that have been? In his career, that would have been a big win. It ended up being a big win for me, but that would have been a huge win for him to put his name back at the forefront to show ‘This is still who I am. This is what I can do. Somebody give me a full-time ride.’

Wilson’s display of sportsmanship at Mid-Ohio three weeks before his accident made a lasting impression on Graham Rahal. Feistman/Motorsport Images

“And instead, here’s the most gracious, fair, safe racer that you could ever have, that gives you the room and the ability to race into a corner for the win with 10 laps to go, hard as hell, but always giving you the space to reduce the opportunity for any sort of wrongdoing.

“I think that says a lot about his character. And I think the more people, if you really viewed that from my standpoint, I don’t think people think about that enough. That was right at the end of his life. And trust me, I’ve thought about that moment a hell of a lot. I look back at those pictures on the podium a lot, because that’s probably one of the most important days of my life. But it’s also become one of the most influential days of my life, because I look back at who I was standing on the podium next to and who I was racing with for the win. So it was a really, really big moment for me.”

Dario Franchitti, on the secret society among British IndyCar drivers

“One of the things that any driver that comes to the U.K. will tell you about is out need for proper tea, whether was me, Justin, or Dan Wheldon. And the other thing was dairy milk chocolate. And yeah, they make the milk in the U.S., but it’s not the same, it’s completely different recipe. It tastes nothing like it. So we had this whole thing that every one of us was going back to the U.K., we would load up the suitcase to bring back for the British drivers. Every time we heard someone was going, it was, ‘Don’t forget the dairy milk!’ You know, it’s like we became dealers! I had a fridge in my motor home that was full. I mean, literally, full of just slabs of dairy milk chocolate.

“And you would get this knock on the door, and it would be Justin, or Dan, … ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey mate, what you got?’ And we would sort of deal between us. And if I hadn’t been home for a while and Justin was going, he would be the provider, or Dan would be it. And you know, it even got to the point that Jimmie Johnson became a fellow addict, and with him, I was like, ‘Listen, man, if you win a race, I’ll give you some, but if you don’t want to race, you don’t get anything.’ And that was his motivation!

“And the big man was obviously, because he was so tall, he was constantly watching his weight and he was training like mad, but he would still have this illicit chocolate habit, too.”